The Chron­i­cle

BU­L­AWAYO, Satur­day, Au­gust 7, 1991 — Gov­ern­ment vet­eri­nary of­fi­cers yesterday launched a new as­so­ci­a­tion that seeks to pro­mote and en­hance the sta­tus of their pro­fes­sion and to have the large salary and al­lowance dis­crep­an­cies be­tween its mem­bers and med­i­cal doc­tors re­dressed.

A spokesman for the as­so­ci­a­tion, Dr Does­mat­ter Karenga, said other aims of the as­so­ci­a­tion were: to pro­mote and ad­vance vet­eri­nary and al­lied sci­ences by re­search and pub­li­ca­tions; to fur­nish pro­fes­sional in­for­ma­tion to rel­e­vant per­sons in or­der to fa­cil­i­tate de­ci­sion mak­ing on mat­ters af­fect­ing the vet­eri­nary pro­fes­sion and to do any other work in the in­ter­est of science.

The as­so­ci­a­tion adopted its con­sti­tu­tion yesterday at the end of the Zim­babwe Vet­eri­nary As­so­ci­a­tion congress in Bu­l­awayo.

Dr Karenga said the as­so­ci­a­tion would be af­fil­i­ated to the Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion and would work and as­sist other pro­fes­sional as­so­ci­a­tions in the coun­try. The dif­fer­ence be­tween the ZVA and the Gov­ern­ment Vet­eri­nar­i­ans As­so­ci­a­tion was that the ZVA was a purely pro­fes­sional body.

The as­so­ci­a­tion was formed af­ter Gov­ern­ment vet­eri­nar­i­ans com­plained at a meet­ing in Kariba last year that they were not get­ting the same salary and al­lowances as med­i­cal doc­tors who had sim­i­lar qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

A com­mit­tee was set up to co­or­di­nate the for­ma­tion of the as­so­ci­a­tion and then get it reg­is­tered.

Dr Karenga said the new as­so­ci­a­tion would be meet­ing of­fi­cials from the Min­istry of Lands, Agri­cul­ture and Ru­ral Re­set­tle­ment early next month to dis­cuss the con­di­tions of ser­vice for vet­eri­nary doc­tors. “We will dis­cuss salaries, al­lowances, over­time, the need for hous­ing and proper trans­port for our mem­bers,’’ said Dr Karenga.